Laundromats at Midnight
by TheNovelArtist
Summary: Day 5 Au August - Laundromat. "Is that blood?" AKA, the struggle of being a vigilante at a laundromat.


She hated laundry days. Lugging a heavy laundry basket down to the apartment laundromat was a pain, meaning she learned to be organized.

And that was hard for her.

She had everything presorted in the laundry basket. She always went down on a Wednesday morning because no one in their right mind was there that early on a Wednesday. She was allowed to hog three washers at once as well as that many driers. And she did it all in one fell swoop.

So, just like every Wednesday, she marched in, dumped her laundry into separate machines, dumped in soap for each one,

And realized she forgot her coins.

She groaned and hung her head. Now, she had to walk all the way across the apartment complex, up to the second story, find her coins, then march all the way back down.

She did not expect a handful to appear in front of her.

"Hi," the owner of the handful of coins said. "Um… You look like you know what you're doing. And I've never been in a laundromat before."

She turned to face the man. Young, handsome, impeccably put together, and very adorable with that sheepish smile.

"So," he said. "I'll pay you to teach me how to do laundry?"

She hated to be that person who borrowed money off people because then she'd feel guilty about likely not catching them for a while to pay them back. But, if he was offering to pay her to help with laundry… "You really need help?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "You could say I grew up as one of those spoiled brats who had a maid that cleaned the mansion and all that. Yes, I really need your help."

Feeling a little less guilty, she took the coins and started up her washers.

The next fifteen minutes was her teaching him how to organize and do laundry. He really wasn't kidding when he said he needed help.

"Thank you," he said. "I thought I had this all figured out, but obviously, I didn't."

"Thank you for the money," she said. "I really appreciate it."

"Then it was a nice exchange," he said. "I'm Adrien, by the way."

"Marinette," she said. "Did you just move here?"

"Literally last week," he said.

"Well, welcome to the complex."

"Thank you. Anything I need to be aware of living here? The ladies in the office are nice and all, but I've worked in business enough to know you can't take the word of anyone trying to sell you something."

Marinette paused. "Um, the apartments are hardly soundproof. If you stand in the bathroom, you can usually hear the neighbors. At least in my apartment. The office doesn't really care about how loud the neighbors are being either. If you want something done, specifically ask to file a complaint and maybe they'll do something if they have enough. Oh, and the maintenance crew isn't always good about watching out for pets in the facility, so if you have a pet that you don't want to get out when they're doing maintenance, then watch out for them."

"All good to know," he said. "Thanks."

"No problem."

The small talk continued up until all Marinette's laundry was completed.

"It was really nice talking with you," Adrien said.

"Likewise," Marinette said, shoving all her clothes in the basket. "If you ever need anything else, I always come early on Wednesdays. The place is usually empty. The weekend and late evening, after people get home from work, it gets a bit busier."

"Nice to know. I'll see you around, then."

With a smile and a wave, Marinette headed back to her apartment.

* * *

It had become routine to see Adrien on Wednesday mornings. It was fun to have a friend to talk to while waiting for laundry.

"Now don't be jealous, kitty," she purred to Chat Noir. "You know there's only one cat for me."

"I'm glad to hear it, bugaboo," her partner in crime—er, crime _prevention_ —said, shooting her a lazy smile that could knock her to her knees. "I thought I was going to have to take out some competition."

"What competition?" she asked innocently.

That smile grew roguish. It was a good look on him.

She had to turn away and pull herself together. They were supposed to be on patrol, after all. After a rash of burglaries as well as assaults in the area, she'd taken up being a part-time vigilante. Something she wouldn't have gotten into had it not been for her nearly getting assaulted. It had been her now partner who had saved her that night. All she did was finish hog-tying the man with some yarn she had on hand and called the police.

He grabbed her hand, calling her attention back. "Hey, bug."

She turned back to him, hoping that he couldn't tell her heart was beating just a little faster. "Yeah?"

"Do you think… maybe… after tonight…"

 _Crash_.

Chat growled in frustration. "We're on the clock again."

"I got your back, kitty."

* * *

Broken glass means only one thing: blood. Depending on how much broken glass one has to deal with, it could either mean a lot or a little.

In this case, it was enough to stain her pink sheets pretty well.

After wrapping her last wound, she stripped them off the bed and chucked them in the laundry basket. There was no getting around it, if she wanted to save her sheets, she'd have to wash them now.

Even if they were ruined, it was at the cost of saving a family that the burglars had targeted that night. But, they were her favorite sheets, so to the laundromat she went.

It was near midnight. The laundromat would be open, but she didn't expect anyone to be there. Nevertheless Adrien.

He turned to look at her as she entered, probably just as shocked as she was to see someone in the laundromat at midnight. "What brings you?" he asked, eyeing her sheets.

She quickly shoved them into a washer, but Adrien was observant. "Is that blood?"

She cringed. "Um… yeah," she shakily answered. "I… uh… lady problems."

He turned a little pink and looked away. "Oh," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

She nodded, then took a seat at the little table they had in the room. "What brings you here?" she asked.

He cringed. "Um… cat. Hairball. Sheets."

She grimaced. "Eww."

"I'm gonna kill him."

"I'd always wanted to experiment with fur."

"I'll gladly give you the pelt."

She giggled, only for it to be interrupted by a yawn.

"No. No. And no," Adrien chastised. "Because if you yawn, I'll…" he was cut off by a yawn of his own.

"Sorry," she said. "Tired."

"Yeah. Tomorrow's gonna be a blast."

She nodded her agreement. "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it."

They burned time talking about whatever they could think about. Random stuff. Puns popped up at regular intervals and Marinette thought she was going to lose it because that made two boys in her life that loved puns.

"Knock it off," she groaned. "It's too late for puns."

"You mean you're too tired to keep yourself form smiling at them."

She glared at him.

"Admit it, I'm the cat's meow."

Her forehead collided with the table top.

The buzzer of a washing machine went off, and Adrien was up and at it. He pulled the sheets from the washer and hauled them over to a drier. However, Marinette noticed that he dropped something on the ground and went to grab it. "Wait, you dropped your…

She paused as she stared at it. Because the jacket was very familiar. Black, thick cotton, high collar, cuffed sleeves, zippered pockets, and a tiny bell she'd put on the front zipper pull as a joke.

It even had the huge hole that a large chunk of glass had cut through that evening.

"Chat?" she said.

His entire body stiffened as he looked at her. Really looked at her. Slowly, hesitantly, he stepped closer. "Bug?"

It took a few seconds for the shock to wear off. And suddenly, she was smiling. "I'm going to take a guess and say there wasn't any hairball?"

A grin brightened up his entire expression, and his shoulders relaxed. "Yeah," he said, closing the distance between them. "You know, before we got interrupted, I was going to ask if we could meet up outside the suits."

"I would have said yes," she told him.

"Nice to know," he said, his grin somehow brightening even more.

"You're going to have to come over anyway," she said, sticking her hand through the five-inch gash in his jacket. "Someone's going to have to fix that."

"I'd really appreciate it."

She shrugged, hoping her blush wasn't too noticeable. "Building five, apartment 202." She handed over the wet jacket. "Bring it by in the morning. I take mochas and croissants as payment."

His smile split, revealing white teeth and causing his eyes to crinkle with joy. "I'd much appreciate it, my lady. Thank you."


End file.
